Film Noir and Stanley Kubrick’s Criminal Mastermind

The film noir genre of western films has long embodied the rebellious spirit of crime. Stanley Kubrick, Lolita, and A Clockwork Orange fame used this cinematic medium to direct The Killing, a 1956 film adaptation of Lionel White’s Clean Break. In Clean Break, the plot follows the heist of a race track by a criminal mastermind and his gang of willing associates. The Killing pits Johnny Clay, played by Sterling Hayden, as the criminal mastermind, set on robbing a horse track on its busiest day of the year. He enlists the help of an assortment of criminals from race track insiders to sharpshooters. The heist goes as planned, with the exception of the death of the sharpshooter, and the gang escapes the track. The post-heist breakaway unravels, though, as a result of leaked information. The race track betting teller, who allowed the gang entrance to the money room, revealed the plans to his wife prior to the heist. His attempts to impress his frustrated wife is to no avail, though, as she has plans of her own. She enlists the help of her lover to rob the gang of their earnings, but a shootout ensues and all but the criminal mastermind are killed. Clay attempts to flee the area with his wife but is thwarted by the size of the suitcase carrying the money. As the movie closes it’s evident that Clay will be arrested, and justice will prevail.

Kubrick’s use of film noir was not a novel idea at the time, a period known for its celebration of gritty crime stories, but his handle of film noir was skilled. He used many of the key components of film noir including low key lighting, dark and light contrasts, dramatic musical scores, and a romanticized sense of pessimism in the on-screen relationships within the storyline. James Naremore defines film noir as “a major signifier of sleekly commodified artistic ambition,” which describes Kubrick’s film adaptation of the sociological underpinnings in Clean Break. The human element, embodied by the window teller giving away the plan, trumps the mastermind in both novel and film.

Bibliography

Naremore, James. "The History of an Idea." In More than Night: Film Noir in its Contexts. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998. 9-39.